Today, the wife and I took our bikes out for a 15 mile jaunt to do some shopping. After shopping, we caught a movie, and later on we went to our favorite 50's diner for ice cream cones before heading home.

Hey CC, I know you from the excellent advice you give to DC area commuters in the commuting forum. I checked out your log, you get around! No wonder you know the best routes. Are you riding a hybrid on these tours? You came within a few blocks of my house today.

Thanks. I enjoy doing the journal.
Been around DC since '79, so I've had some time to get to know the roads, and sometimes saw them being built.
I like to explore different routes, and try not to repeat too much in one season. I want to see something new every time I go out. Part of my choice of route this weekend was to add the new parts around Wheaton Park. That, and I'm thinking about a possible new route for a PPTC ride using part of that loop.
Right now the only bike I have is my TREK 750 hybrid, and I take it on some pretty good distances. This time of season my usual ride target is between 45 and 65 miles. Will be riding the NY Century next month, and will probably do the 75 mile route like I did last year.

From the Haskett branch of the Anaheim Public Library to SART then south to Huntington Beach then north along the beach trail to Golden West St to Lampson (which is actually after the schizoid name change to Knott Av) to Beach Blvd to Orange St back to Maxwell Park and the Haskett branch of APL. A bit over 41 miles. Pics are still in the camera.

To the shop where I repacked the rear hub and swapped pedals... to MEC so I could pick up a new rear rack to fit my panniers, and out on a 40 km midnight ride on a mix of road and trail.

Some folks had road bikes and suffered mightily on the gravel and dirt whereas those 26 by 1.5 tyres sucked up all the bumps and made for a very stable ride and I had no trouble keeping up on the flats... it is also nice when the panniers don't fly off.

I should have picked up fenders today as the ride back was done in a downpour.

Got a late start (had to clean house, do yard work, shop for groceries.)
Stayed entirely in Virginia. Rode to the Arlington County Fair, then W&OD and MVT to Belle Haven, MTV and Custis back to the W&OD. 31 miles, which was a lot less than I originally wanted to ride.

I have been off the bike for three days now. Friday was a scheduled 'rest' day. Saturday I developed a heat rash from .....mowing the lawn with a pusher in 95+º heat & very high humidity. All better now & looking forward to an afternoon excursion....to the LBS for some new wheels.

56 miles?! wow! Do you think it's possible to do a century on a hybrid?

My bike took me to work and an attempted errand on the return trip, then the long way home. I really, really need to clean and grease my chain. I can't believe how fast it gets filthy!

Absolutely. The bike will not hold you back, I have a couple road bikes and find myself riding the hybrid more these days just due to comfort. Real comfy. I would like to ditch the suspension fork, and yeah I catch a bit more wind on the hybrid but Im guessing Im only about a 1/2 to 3/4 mph slower on average speed as compared to my roadbike. I do run a triple but have a tighter cluster cassette on the back.

Look at the long distance and touring forums. Contrary to what many of the roadies say about flat bars, check out how many touring rigs and long distance bikes have flat bars on them. Many of the roadies act like you cant do more than 20 miles on a flat bar, but its full of people doing some serious distance on flat bar bikes.

I have my own setup using flat bars with barends and then I have cutoff barend with barend shifters mounted on them. I have no problems with my hands on long rides. I do double wrap my bars so they are pretty cushy.

Absolutely. The bike will not hold you back, I have a couple road bikes and find myself riding the hybrid more these days just due to comfort. Real comfy. I would like to ditch the suspension fork, and yeah I catch a bit more wind on the hybrid but Im guessing Im only about a 1/2 to 3/4 mph slower on average speed as compared to my roadbike. I do run a triple but have a tighter cluster cassette on the back.

Look at the long distance and touring forums. Contrary to what many of the roadies say about flat bars, check out how many touring rigs and long distance bikes have flat bars on them. Many of the roadies act like you cant do more than 20 miles on a flat bar, but its full of people doing some serious distance on flat bar bikes.

I have my own setup using flat bars with barends and then I have cutoff barend with barend shifters mounted on them. I have no problems with my hands on long rides. I do double wrap my bars so they are pretty cushy.

I once did 60-70 km in one day on my $320 "crappy" hybrid. Nearly a metric century. I thought that road bikes default go faster than hybrids due to the difference in the niches in the chain rings? Hybrids have larger niches or something? Fastest I've managed to go on my hybrid on a flat road is 32km/h. The roadies talk about going 50 MILES per hour etc. Makes me feel like a slug.